As digital innovation reshapes the toy market, the BBC's Executive Lounge meets with Lego's Chief Executive, Niels B Christiansen, to discuss why playing around is good for children, adults and business.
Inside Lego's factory in Billund, Denmark, rows of moulding machines churn out tiny plastic pieces as robots shuttle around the shop floor. There are cupped hands, pairs of green legs, small black wheels and colourful flower petals. In all, thousands of different shape and colour combinations, that designers repurpose in new and inventive ways to make the latest play sets. Tens of billions of these bricks and bobs will be produced this year.
The name 'LEGO' is an abbreviation of the Danish words leg godt meaning "play well" and at its heart is the iconic brick, a basic interlocking building block which remains practically unchanged since it was first patented in 1958. Today the company says it produces more than 15,900 different types of bricks.
After bumper sales during the Covid-19 pandemic, the $109bn (£84bn) global toy market is facing new headwinds, such as competition with video games, squeezed consumer spending, and falling birth rates worldwide.
Niels B Christiansen joined Lego as CEO in 2017, of what was already the world's largest toymaker, and has continued the firm's ascent, out-selling Japanese video game conglomerate Bandai Namco, and major American toy and entertainment corporations Hasbro and Mattel. Even as the global toy market stalled last year, Lego bucked the trend, growing its revenue to almost $8bn (£6bn). He's been steering the firm's digital expansion, while maintaining its strength in physical play.